Unlike Mickey Mouse and Snoopy, Hello Kitty didn’t start as a cartoon. A young Sanrio illustrator named Yuko Shimizu drew her in 1974 as a decoration for stationery, tote bags, cups and other ...

It’s 50 years since the creation of one of the world’s most recognisable characters, Hello Kitty. In 1974, a 24-year-old Japanese illustrator called Yuko Shimizu put pen to paper to draw the ...

With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics coming to an end, a look at two new books on Japan’s influence and the ways in which we react to it. Advisory Alert: It has come to our attention that certain ...